Meet Your Lecturers

John Kelly

Director, Centre for Project Management

John has over 15 years international project management experience working in the UK and Australia on large scale infrastructure projects before joining the University of Limerick in 2002. He is a chartered engineer with Engineers Ireland, has PMP certification with the Project Management Institute and completed a Masters in Project Management (M.PM) in UL in 2000.

John's interests include project governance, commercial management of projects, network organisations and project management for SMEs. He is currently completing his PhD studies at the Manchester Business School.

Catriona Burke

Lecturer in Project Management

Catriona has over 12 years industry experience managing and delivering complex projects and programmes within the Financial Services industry. Her diverse experience includes leading extensive organisational change, large scale operational efficiency and complex regulatory and IT development programmes. She is an active member of the Project Management Institute (Ireland Chapter) since 2004. She holds a Masters degree in Project Management (1st Class Honours), a Specialist Diploma in Teaching, Learning and Scholarship (1st Class Honours), and is a doctoral candidate with the Kemmy Business School.

Catriona’s interests include temporary organisation, strategy implementation and the changing paradigms of project management.

John Lannon (Dr)

Lecturer in Knowledge Management

John has a primary degree in electronic engineering from NUI Galway, and an MA from the University of Limerick. He worked for over 15 years in the IT sector, first as a software designer and more recently as a project manager. In 2012 he was awarded a PhD by Leeds Metropolitan University for his work on information management in the non-profit sector.

John's research interests include knowledge and information management, particularly in governmental and non-governmental sectors, as well as stakeholder engagement in project and programme contexts and the challenges faced by global virtual teams. He has recently worked on a number of action research projects in the non-profit sector, looking at how information communication technologies act as enablers of effective information flow and knowledge sharing.

Caroline Murphy (Dr)

Caroline currently researches and lectures with the Department of Personnel and Employment Relations at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick. She lectures in Industrial Relations, Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour. Caroline is a former IRRT funded research scholar and holds a MA (2005) and PhD (2011) from the University of Limerick She previously worked in the logistics and property sectors and performance management consultancy. Her current research projects relate to management systems in healthcare settings and precarious employment practices.

Sandra Flynn

Sandra works full-time in industry with over 15 years experience behind her in international project management and continuous process improvement in an e-commerce environment. She was awarded her Masters in Project Management in 2003 with first class honours from the University of Limerick and is a practicing Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.

She currently teaches the International Project Management module for the full-time MSc in Project Management and acts as the International Project Management module leader for the Online Project Management Masters.
Prior to this, Sandra tutored part-time for several years on the 2-year distance learning programme for the Masters in Project Management and also supervised individual students completing their dissertations.
Her research interests include international project management, global virtual teamworking and continuous process improvement.

Dan Aherne

Dan joined UL in 2001 and has lectured in Project Management on numerous undergraduate and postgraduate programmes within the University. Dan is currently course director on the MSc. in Project Management fulltime programme.

Dan has over 35 years’ experience in Project Management both nationally and internationally and was Managing Director of his own Light Engineering Company before joining UL. Prior to that he worked as a Senior Manufacturing Engineer with Johnson & Johnson Vision Products both in the US and Ireland. He was also employed as Centre Manager in Sligo IT, responsible for Education/Training Programmes, Computer Aided Design, Computer Aided Manufacturing, Research and Development, Metrology and Consultancy.

Dan’s interests include Project Management, Education, Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality Systems and Risk Management.

Terence O'Donnell

Terence has extensive Project Management experience in both the public and private sector and is currently the Director of Projects and Consulting with I.T. Alliance. Prior to this he was the Director of Centre for Project Management, UL, from 2001 to 2005; he was also the Director of the MBA Programme for a period during 2004.

He has developed and directed a range of Project Management programmes for industry up to Master’s level and continues to work with UL in a consultative capacity - supervising MBA, MPM &PhD research candidates.

He is also a non-executive director of a number of organizations where project management & IT services is a dominant skill-set. Earlier in his career he worked at a Director Level in Digital / Compaq and Nixdorf Computers, running major international programmes, PMOs and developing project management disciplines within these 'blue-chip' corporates. He also spent 4 years as a Senior Project Manager in the Health Services and was an I.T. Lecturer in LYIT between 1985 & 1988

His current interests include International Project Management, Governance, Decision Making & Project Leadership/Management in the IT software development sector. He also set up the only annual project management conference in Ireland, which is now in its tenth year - an initiative he continues to support.

He is a founding member of the local Project Management Institute's (PMI) chapter and is a past president of the Irish chapter; he has also published a series of articles on various project management & IT topics in both practitioner and academic journals.

Orla Fahy

Orla has worked in industry for a number of years involving the analysis of company specific training requirements and then doing in-company training. She also did a number of training sessions for start-up businesses for Enterprise Ireland as well as on a one-to-one basis with start-up businesses in relation to strategy. In addition Orla has done and still does consultancy work with various SMEs.

After completing her Degree and Masters, Orla started teaching on various modules in UL and other institutions. She has been teaching Strategic Management for the last ten years; which is a topic that both intrigues and excites her. Other areas of interest to Orla are Organizational Behavior, Communications, Corporate Social Responsibility and Decision Making.

Paul Maguire

Paul is HP’s Director of Strategic Initiatives and has 30 years’ experience in Bid and Project management in a variety of roles; cost engineer, information manager, project engineer and project manager.

In his current role Paul is responsible for implementing major organizational change/transformation programs and Mergers and Acquisitions. During his time in IT Paul has managed a full range of IT system integration and services projects. Paul previously worked for Esso’s Project Management Division working on Refinery and Lubes projects ranging in value from $20M to $6B. Paul also has experience of working on major construction projects including the International Convention Centre, Birmingham. Paul has extensive global experience having worked in more than 20 countries. Paul holds a Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Manufacturing Strategy. Paul lives in London with his wife and 3 children.